Understanding (and preventing) ethical leadership failures

The content of today's blog is attributed to the American Linda Fisher Thornton who has written about understanding some of the problems that cause ethical leadership failures. These relate to individual problems and other problems embedded in the organisational culture.

You may recognise some of these in your organisation, or probably a combination of them. So, starting with the individual, these are some of Linda's identified issues.

• Ignoring boundaries (ignoring ethics codes and organisational values that forbid and action).
• Failing to use self-control ("I will do this even though it's not allowed")
• Entitlement view ("I definitely deserve this even though it's not allowed")
• Prominent personal values (" I think this is really fine to do even though it's not allowed")
• Crowd following ("Everyone else is doing it, so it must be fine")
• Lack of moral compass ("Nobody specifically said I can't do it so it must be fine if I do it").

The latter two points here show how easy it is for companies in a particular sector to just follow their competitors, regardless of whether the actions fit with organisational values. It also shows how important, and how difficult it often is,to find leaders who are prepared to challenge, rigorously and often,internal practice and conduct.